Hello, nice to see you again.
This past week I have been working on and off on this set of miniature classic vanilla cupcakes. My partner was on holiday this week so we decided to take this time to chill and do some DIYing at home like installing our wardrobe doors (we hadn't had doors since we moved in last September for various reasons), finish a few other things and enjoy the nice weather.
So I worked on these miniatures when I could, not giving myself an imminent deadline to stress over.
Everything in the pictures is handmade by me, including the baking tray, the spatulas and even the real cupcake you'll see in a little bit (I baked them especially for this photo-shoot!). The spoon is the only thing I didn't make or the fabric, I just cut it and fixed it into that shape.
The baking tray and the cupcake liners were the trickiest to make; the cupcake liners clearly need a lot of work still but, after trying two different techniques, I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it.
I made two different cupcake tray masters; one much bigger than the one I ended up using here. I wanted the cupcakes to sit snugly in the hollows but it was very hard to get the size right without them looking too big and it was also hard to work with the spacing between the hollows. But anyway, I made two trays in the size you see here, the first attempt was a total mess ^_^.
The second is pictured here.
A much better result, but still needs tweaking.
It's not my goal to make trays and cupcake liners to sell; maybe in a scene or as a set but not individually. I am more interested in making them to use them as props in my pictures and compositions to be able to tell a story, as I don't find a lot of joy in making these "dead" objects (Lumière and Cogsworth would disagree) that in real life are made my a machine.
I know cupcakes are not alive, but we bring them to "life" by mixing the ingredients and baking them; so I prefer to spend more time creating realistic food that's been made with love, because they are the subjects, the protagonists.
I did however enjoy making the wooden spatulas more than the other "dead" objects; maybe because in real life wooden utensils can be handmade as well.
The story is a very simple and clear one: the process of baking and frosting classic vanilla cupcakes.
Vanilla are my favourite type of cupcakes and the ones I bake the most; I like them nice and fluffy and slightly sticky on the top.
Come to think of it, I've never come across miniature cupcake liners with batter in them. Yes, empty ones. I don't know why I had never made them like this before. It's an important step in baking cupcakes, is it not? ^_^
As I mentioned, my cupcake liners still need work. But I was happy to share them because I'm not perfect (not that I ever claimed to be or wanted to be deemed as such), but more often than not, I show you finished pieces that I'm very happy with.
Even though some are frilly and some broke in my hands; I'm very happy with these in the sense that they are my stepping stones toward better future ones. I didn't start this project with any expectations; I just wanted to see what would happened if I tried "this".
If you're interested in learning how I make my cupcakes (without the frosting), I have an in-depth "Blueberry Cupcake" tutorial here on my website where I use the same technique I used to make these cupcakes.
If you're new to my polymer clay journey, I also have a book that covers a lot of my techniques to make cakes, cupcakes and a lot of sweet food called "Miniature Cake Creations". The book covers 30 projects including different types of cakes and jewellery as well as a solid techniques section that you can apply to any other miniature you'd like to create, independently from those presented in the book.
I would like to add some more tutorials on my website, so on that note I would welcome suggestions if you have any. I will try my best to make that happen for you.
Also, I received an email as a response from an automated message I sent out with my last blog post and I don't seem to be able to reply to it (I'm sorry, I'm not a very techy kind of person); so I'd just like to thank that person for their message, I'm really glad you enjoyed my flamingo tutorial in the last issue of The Doll House & Miniature Scene magazine. I'm going to try again and reply to you as soon as I can.
I hope you've had a wonderful weekend and hope you have a great week too,
Thanks for reading and I'll catch you next time,
Love, Mai